Saturday, 6 July 2013

In the wake of recent events, many people of a variety of persuasions are coming to agree that the First Amendment, which protects and ensures our first freedoms, is facing an all-out attack.

The IRS has been bullying groups who sought to advance a message and perspective that the government didn’t like or want around. The latest example includes startling audio of an IRS agent lecturing a non-profit organization about placing boundaries on her religious activities if she wants to gain a tax exemption. Far from the “live and let live” attitude feigned by many in leadership today, the government’s deliberate, targeted scrutiny and intimidation of groups who aren’t favored by the current political regime demonstrates their true feelings about respecting all viewpoints. At the altar of a particular government agenda, freedom of speech is sacrificed.

But the attack on First Amendment freedoms does not end with intimidation to suppress speech or control the press. Instead of advancing a culture of diversity and pluralism, as it would like to claim it is doing, the government has engaged bullying tactics to disintegrate the First Amendment’s freedom of religion.

One need look no further than the many abortion pill mandate lawsuits filed around the country by hard-working Americans, defending their constitutional freedom to live according to their sincerely-held religious beliefs. And although many courts have begun to rule that the government cannot coerce them to provide services that violate their conscience, the Obama administration and its allies remain relentless. They continue to issue fig leaf after fig leaf of “religious-freedom protections” that remain as barren as a parched tree in the middle of a desert when it comes to protecting freedom of conscience and belief.

This is part of a growing pattern and practice of cultural and political intolerance for less “popular” viewpoints. Such intolerance guts the very heart of the First Amendment: the right to disagree.

If we desire a homogenous nation where the government dictates our thoughts, ideas, values, and beliefs, we should remain content with the government’s current intimidation and coercive tactics to enact and achieve its agenda.

But if this vision falls short of why we believe in America (and for the 68 percent of Americans who view freedom of the press as “very important” it certainly does), then we must ensure no person is ostracized or sidelined simply because they express or conduct themselves according to their time-honored beliefs.

America’s Founding Fathers did not risk their lives, their fortunes, or their sacred honor for the small portion of freedom a given government might allow us to posses. Rather, they risked their all for a freedom that God bestowed upon us when He created us and “endowed us with certain inalienable rights.”

Some of those rights—the freedom of speech, of the press, and of religion—were specifically protected by our Founders in the First Amendment because they recognized just how critical these freedoms are to a healthy society. We ignore that lesson at the risk of repeating history and subjecting ourselves to the very tyranny that the Founders sought to escape.

Got a huge mess of beat greens simmering on the stove. They are almost done. Will just warm them up again at dinner time and serve them up with some fresh bread and butter, nugget potatoes, and a grilled hamburger slightly charred on the BBQ.

Oh, I know, it doesn't do anything for most of you but me? Well, hell, I could make a dinner just out of the beat greens because if you are from New England it just doesn't get any better than that!

I cannot help it. I was born this way. Nothing can change me. It is the way I am.

I went to the store to grab a few items this evening. When I get home I looked at the bill and noticed a five cent Ecology charge. What the hell for? The plastic trays the meat items came in? I guess. There are Eco fees and taxes on everything these days. I noticed I had not been charged for the tomatoes I have bought.

I can't help it. It is the way I am. I was born this way. I got in the car and drove back to the store to pay for the tomatoes I know many people wouldn't. I am not one of them. The clerk made a mistake but that doesn't mean that I get them for free. I was supposed to pay for it and therefore went back to the store to make it right.

It turns out that the code for an Eco charge and the code for the tomatoes are one number difference. There was no five cent Eco charge. That was supposed to be a buck forty eight for the 'maters.

And with that they thanked me for my honesty and sent me back on my way with my "5 cent" tomatoes. The mistake was theirs. They refused to charge me.

Fine. That is their decision and I thanked them and left. But I had to go back and make the attempt. That is the way I was raised. I was born and brought up to be honest. I give back the money when I am given too much change. I've always had a highly developed sense of right and wrong and my conscience won't allow me to take what's not mine.

I was born that way.

I was also born with the innate knowledge that one man sticking his dick up another mans shit chute was not natural, it wasn't right, and it wasn't love and I have yet to be brainwashed into thinking otherwise. Nature tells us that we were born male and female to reproduce and you don't do that by banging someone's asshole.

The SCOTUS can make any proclamation it wants. All they have succeeded in doing is proving that the law is a jackass. As part of its legal definition marriage must be consummated to be a marriage contract. The sodomites cannot consummate a marriage.

Excerpt:The Internal Revenue Service sent 23,994 tax refunds worth a combined $46,378,040 to “unauthorized” alien workers who all used the same address in Atlanta, Ga., in 2011, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).

That was not the only Atlanta address theoretically occupied by thousands of “unauthorized” alien workers receiving millions in federal tax refunds in 2011. In fact, according to a TIGTA audit report published last year, four of the top ten addresses to which the IRS sent thousands of tax refunds to “unauthorized” aliens were in Atlanta.

The IRS sent 11,284 refunds worth a combined $2,164,976 to unauthorized alien workers at a second Atlanta address; 3,608 worth $2,691,448 to a third; and 2,386 worth $1,232,943 to a fourth.

Other locations on the IG’s Top Ten list for singular addresses that were theoretically used simultaneously by thousands of unauthorized alien workers, included an address in Oxnard, Calif, where the IRS sent 2,507 refunds worth $10,395,874; an address in Raleigh, North Carolina, where the IRS sent 2,408 refunds worth $7,284,212; an address in Phoenix, Ariz., where the IRS sent 2,047 refunds worth $5,558,608; an address in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., where the IRS sent 1,972 refunds worth $2,256,302; an address in San Jose, Calif., where the IRS sent 1,942 refunds worth $5,091,027; and an address in Arvin, Calif., where the IRS sent 1,846 refunds worth $3,298,877.

Since 1996, the IRS has issued what it calls Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs) to two classes of persons: 1) non-resident aliens who have a tax liability in the United States, and 2) aliens living in the United States who are “not authorized to work in the United States.”

The IRS has long known it was giving these numbers to illegal aliens, and thus facilitating their ability to work illegally in the United States. For example, the Treasury Inspector General’s Semiannual Report to Congress published on Oct. 29, 1999—nearly fourteen years ago—specifically drew attention to this problem.

[...]In addition to the 23,994 tax refunds worth a combined $46,378,040 that the IRS sent to a single address in Atlanta, the IG also discovered that the IRS had assigned 15,796 ITINs to unauthorized aliens who presumably resided at a single Atlanta address.

The IRS, according to TIGTA, also assigned ITINs to 15,028 unauthorized aliens presumably living at a single address in Dallas, Texas, and 10,356 to unauthorized aliens presumably living at a single address in Atlantic City, N.J.

Perhaps the most remarkable act of the IRS was this: It assigned 6,411 ITINs to unauthorized aliens presumably using a single address in Morganton, North Carolina. According to the 2010 Census, there were only 16,681 people in Morganton. So, for the IRS to have been correct in issuing 6,411 ITINS to unauthorized aliens at a single address Morganton it would have meant that 38 percent of the town’s total population were unauthorized alien workers using a single address.

TIGTA said there were 154 addresses around the country that appeared on 1,000 or more ITIN applications made to the IRS.

And now they are trying to pass an amnesty bill which they tell us contains no corruption, waste or fraud at all. How stupid do they think that we are? If they were serious about their desire to clean up the immigration system and encourage immigration of responsible, law-abiding skilled immigrants, then they would be building a fence now and cleaning up the messes that already exist. It’s important to understand that illegal immigrants break the law and cheat the system – and the rest of us have to pay for it. We pay for their schools, their health care, their car accidents, their crimes and so on. Politicians who turn a blind eye to this want to appear to be generous, spending other people’s money and calling it “compassion”. But this money doesn’t come from politicians, it comes from taxpayers like you and I. I don’t know about you, but I had my own plans for the money I earn, and it didn’t involve paying for corrupt politicians to feel good about their “generosity”.

I laughed so hard I had tears running down my cheeks. It was the sort of thing you see on television or Youtube but never expect to experience in real life.
You see, Tess is one of those people who has absolutely no sense of direction nor any sense of body space. She could get lost in a broom closet and she could walk up on a feeding Grizzley Bear without ever knowing it.

Every time we got off the elevator at the hotel at Harrison Hot Springs she turned in the wrong direction to go to our room. Most times I would call her back but occasionally I'd let her walk off by herself. She never self-corrected until she noticed she was by herself.

Anyway ...

There are three outdoor pools at Harrison (and two indoor). There is a regular swimming pool, an adult pool kept at 104 degrees, and a family pool kept at 96 so the kids don't overheat. We spent most of our time in the adult pool but the morning of the second day Tess wanted to walk over to the family pool. So we strolled over. I was looking at the mountains and talking to another couple while Tess wandered about. All of a sudden I heard a KERSPLASH and a non-family-pool expletive and looked down to see that Tess had walked right off the edge and into the pool.

I fell apart laughing. Tess was trying to get her feet under herself to stand up and I couldn't offer any help I was laughing so hard. People in the pool were casting dirty looks at me which just made me laugh harder and then looking with concern at Tess but by this time even Tess had seen the humor in it and was laughing.

Nothing damaged although Tess' bathrobe and towel were wetter than normal.

We left Kamloops this morning for the drive to Harrison but first stopped at Minter Gardens. Tess had me take a kazillion photos there but I am absolutely exhausted and do not have the energy to upload them tonight.

We got to Harrison around 4:00 p.m. It is a dog of a place as you can see from the one photo below.

Harrison Lake at Harrison Hot Springs.

This lake is much larger than it looks. It wanders for 40 miles through the mountains.

One here and havng explored the hotel we hit the hot springs. By this time I was tired and cranky and the springs were wonderfully relaxing until Nanay got on my nerves. I finally waited until she stood up and then tripped her. When she went under water I jumped on her back and held her under until there were no more bubbles.

After that it was more relaxing still.

I am going to go to bed now. Tess is out searching for her mother. They'll find her when the night shift clean the springs.

At the last minute we decided to leave a day early so we packed up and left. Then fifteen minutes out of town we came back because Tess insisted she hadn't turned the coffee pot off. Of course she had so then we left again.

Lac Des Roches

Lac Des Roches

We drove south on Highway 97 to just south of 100 Mile house where we cut across the province on Rt. 24 to Little Fort and the down Yellowhead Highway 5 to the interior city of Kamloops.

Little Fort

Little Fort

North Thompson River, Barrier, B.C.

We arrived in Kamloops at 5:30 p.m. and got a room before heading for dinner at Ned Kelly's Road House. That, of course, occassioned an argyment because Nanay wanted Chinese. I said I'd go home before eating Chinese. I was tired of Nanay insisting on Asian every time we we ate out and since I was paying she could eat Canadian or she could go hungry. She opted for Canadian.

Riverside Park, Kamloops, B.C.

Kamloops sits at the beginning of the Great American Desert. Normally this time of year it would be 100 degrees here. Today was freezing assed cold.

This is an example and we all need to sit up and pay attention to this. The end of America is not here yet. Good people do not have to accept the "inevitable."

A couple of days ago I posted a piece on the conformism of gay marriage. It is a great piece. If you haven't read it, you should. I know there are any number of you out there who thinks gay marriage does not affect you or your marriage. You are wrong. It does. And when I am back from vacation I may start posting why that is so.

But the point of this post is different. You see, I do not believe for one moment that there has been this sudden shift where the majority of people have started to accept this perversion that has been promoted and pushed by elite liberalism. I think they have just conformed. They have given up. They have not fought back because they didn't think they could win.

That, as we shall see, is wrong. You can push back. You can win. Morality is noy lost. You simply have to stand up.

Gay marriage, a foregone conclusion in Illinois, was just turned back. Grass root organizers, with a $120,000 budget, ended the push for gay marriage in the most liberal and Democratic state in the Union. They ended the push that was supported by the mayor of Chicago, the governor, and for which the President personally campaigned.

"A moral society is a free society. Without morality, freedom is impossible. Since moral laws are legislated by moral people and private charity, civility, and community originates from moral people, a free country depends on moral people. When society's morals dissipate, governmental tyranny will be on the next train."